TV & Film News – Global News hit with new round of layoffs

Global News has made cuts resulting in an unknown number of positions being eliminated. “As part of our ongoing evaluation of our business and continued enterprise efficiency review across Corus, we have made some changes at Global News today, and as a result, certain roles have been impacted,” a Corus spokesperson told Broadcast Dialogue in an emailed statement on Wednesday. “These changes correlate with the current economic and regulatory reality we, and other media organizations, find ourselves in,” it continued. “We are continuously working to improve the way we gather, produce, and deliver award winning content.” It’s not known what positions are impacted, but according to a recording of an address to Alberta staff obtained by the Western Standard, the cuts impact multiple bureaus in addition to flagship newscast Global National as the network moves toward using multi-skilled journalists and fewer single function roles. Read more here.

Rogers Communications has acquired the rights to Warner Bros. Discovery’s suite of English-language U.S. lifestyle and factual brands, including HGTV, The Food Network, Magnolia Network, The Cooking Channel, OWN, Discovery, MotorTrend, Science, Animal Planet and I.D. Corus Entertainment announced Friday it had been informed by Warner Bros. Discovery, that some of its programming and trademark output arrangements were not being renewed past Dec. 31, impacting content on Corus-operated specialty channels. Bell Media currently holds the rights to Discovery, MotorTrend, Science, Animal Planet and I.D. Starting in January 2025, Rogers will become the home of that programming in Canada, saying in a release that it “will work with Canadian distribution partners to make the content widely available” including on its on-demand service Citytv+, and Citytv, OMNI, FX, and FXX. A Rogers spokesperson says distribution details are still being finalized with an eye to a mix of linear and streaming options. Starting in September, the company is also launching NBCUniversal’s Bravo channel in Canada. Read more here.

Citytv’s 2024/25 original programming slate is highlighted by a two-season greenlight for Law & Order Toronto: Criminal Intent, in partnership with Lark Productions and Cameron Pictures. Both seasons are set to premiere on Citytv from early 2025. Filming will commence this July in Toronto. Hudson & Rex meanwhile returns for Season 7, set to premiere in early 2025. Shania Twain and comedian Katherine Ryan also join Howie Mandel, Kardinal Offishall and Host Lindsay Ell for an all-new season of Canada’s Got Talent.

Bell Media has unveiled its lineup of English and French-language original content for 2024/25, totaling 98 titles and 839 hours of original programming and supported documentaries. Crave’s lineup is highlighted by its first-ever original animated series, Super Team Canada, coming in early 2025, starring Will Arnett, Cobie Smulders, Kevin McDonald, Charles Demers, Brian Drummond, Ceara Morgana, and Veena Sood as little-known Canadian superheroes. BOA, Jada Shada Hudson, Kandy Muse, Kerri Colby, Lawrence Chaney, and Luxx Noir London have been revealed as the international queens slaying at a Canadian winter retreat in Slaycation, the new format developed by Bell Media and World of Wonder from the Drag Race universe and Blue Ant Studios, coming to Crave this winter. Comedian Mark McKinney embarks on a mission to uncover Canada’s most fulfilling pastimes in new CTV Original comedy series Mark McKinney Needs A Hobby. New unscripted luxury reno series Queen of the Castle with Canadian socialite Ann Kaplan Mulholland and her husband Stephen Mulholland is also set to hit Bell’s specialty channels. Read more about new series coming to Crave here.

Crave new original docuseries The Rebuild: Inside the Montreal Canadiens offers an inside look at the iconic hockey franchise. The eight-episode, one-hour series, produced by Fair-Play in collaboration with Crave, is set to stream later this year in English and French. It follows Canadiens players and personnel throughout the 2023-24 season as the Montreal organization aims to lay the foundation for long-term success. Narration will be provided by Marc-André Grondin in French and George Stroumboulopoulos in English. 

Prime Video has announced an untitled project with Box To Box Films and NHL Productions promising unprecedented access to life in the NHL. The docuseries will premiere exclusively on Prime Video in more than 240 countries and territories. It joins recently announced Prime Monday Night Hockey, which will stream national regular season Monday night NHL games exclusively on Prime Video in Canada. The series will feature in-depth interviews with key players, rivals and those in their inner circle, revealing what life on-and-off the ice is really like for the league’s top players. Superstar players followed in the series include Edmonton Oilers captain Connor McDavid; Florida Panthers forward Matthew Tkachuk; New York Rangers captain Jacob Trouba; Oilers forward Leon Draisaitl; Boston Bruins teammates David Pastrnak and Jeremy Swayman; Vancouver Canucks captain Quinn Hughes; Vegas Golden Knights forward Jack Eichel; Toronto Maple Leafs forward William Nylander; Nashville Predators forward Filip Forsberg; and Colorado Avalanche captain Gabriel Landeskog, among others. 

Sportsnet has announced an 11-year contract extension with the Edmonton Oilers to continue as the team’s exclusive regional broadcast partner. In addition to the renewed regional broadcast rights through to 2035, Sportsnet is the national broadcast rights partner of the NHL in Canada, making it Canada’s home of Oilers games on TV and via live stream on Sportsnet+. 

Northern Super League, Canada’s professional women’s soccer league, has announced a multi-year media partnership with Bell Media’s TSN and RDS, and CBC/Radio-Canada. Starting with the league’s inaugural season in April 2025, TSN will broadcast a slate of games across its platforms, with RDS delivering live French-language coverage of select matches featuring the league’s club in Montreal. CBC Sports and Radio-Canada will also deliver matches across their national network and digital platforms. 

Corus Entertainment has announced that all 33 Corus channels are available once again through Eastlink TV. The move ends a year-long carriage dispute that saw the cable carrier drop HGTV Canada, W Network, and Showcase, among other Corus offerings. Eastlink TV customers can access Corus channels through new Corus Theme Packs, offering a range of package options. 

Entertainment One (eOne) has officially rebranded as Lionsgate Canada. The rebrand comes six months after Lionsgate acquired eOne from Hasbro for $500M CAD. At the time, Lionsgate said the eOne acquisition would allow it to continue to scale its operations in the UK and Canada, where it has production partnerships with BBC Studios, Channel Four, CBC, CityTV and Bell Media.

Big Time Decent Productions has announced that it’s in production on four new docuseries and is expanding its unscripted slate to include a feature documentary, an IMAX nature doc, and a new automotive vertical for YouTube including Rust Bros and Wildman Garage channels. The Vancouver prodco has also shared details on the launch of its new scripted division, Bread & Better Films, and a new partnership with Verve Talent and Literary Agency out of Los Angeles. The new scripted division will focus on developing and producing feature films and scripted series. Launched in partnership with Big Time Decent’s René Brar and Jeff Kinnon, the company is also bringing in industry veteran Robert Vroom as producer and Juliana Wimbles as Development Producer. 

APTN will broadcast celebrations from Indigenous communities across the country on June 21, National Indigenous Peoples Day (NIPD). The broadcaster is sending members of the APTN National News team far and wide to report live on events aimed at elevating and celebrating Indigenous voices, stories and cultures. Audiences can tune in throughout the day to see celebrations, including the Summer Solstice Indigenous Festival in Ottawa, TOOT AASAAMB in Winnipeg and Indigenous-focused community events in Quebec, B.C., Yukon and Nova Scotia. The special day of programming will be hosted by Acting Good’s Roger Laughingstick, portrayed by actor Billy Merasty, and will feature an Acting Good marathon. NIPD special programming will be broadcast on all APTN channels as well as livestreamed. 

The CBC-APTN Early Stage Scripted Development Program for Indigenous Creators in association with the Indigenous Screen Office (ISO) is returning for a third year, offering a unique opportunity for up to three emerging creators with projects in the pre-development phase to work closely with CBC and APTN execs to help move their projects into development and ultimately the production phase. Applications close July 10 with guidelines found here. Funding will be distributed based on project needs, to a maximum of $30,000. 

The Indigenous Screen Office (ISO) announced at the Indigenous Screen Summit, which kicked off the Banff World Media Festival, that the first steps have been taken towards ISO fully administering the Canada Media Fund (CMF) Indigenous Program, ensuring the best Indigenous stories are seen on screens at home and around the world. The $10M program for development and production funding will come under the administration of ISO starting April 1, 2025. In addition to annual Canadian Heritage funding of $13M and the recent CRTC allocation estimated at $14M, ISO will have approximately $37M in funding under its administration by next year. The application process will remain the same with applicants applying to the Indigenous Program via the CMF’s program administrator at Telefilm Canada. 

The Banff World Media Festival (BANFF) has announced a new partnership with Paramount+ in Canada to launch the BANFF SPARK Accelerator for Women in the Business of Media: Producer Edition. The program is open to Canadian women from across the country, aimed at working toward gender parity in the media industry by supporting growth, investment, scaling, and sustainability of established and mid-career women-owned media companies. Twenty-five women who own their own production outfits will participate in a series of customized, virtual sessions covering business strategy and planning, finance, and marketing best practices; one-on-one concierge meetings, and curated sessions during the 2025 festival. 

Paramount+ in Canada and Reelworld Screen Institute have announced they will partner for this year’s Reelworld Summit. The two-day Summit, taking place Oct. 22-23 at the Courtyard by Marriott Toronto Downtown, features keynote speeches, industry discussions, fireside chats, pitch opportunities, awards presentations, and breakfast/luncheon networking. The event was launched in 2023 as an extension of the Reelworld Film Festival.

Pink Triangle Press (PTP) has released its inaugural PTP Pink Paper highlighting the current state of 2SLGBTQIA+ representation across the film, television, streaming and videogame industries. The report marks the first-ever comprehensive look at the entertainment industry in both English and French markets in Canada. Commissioned by PTP and conducted by Maru Matchbox and Signal Hill Insights, it finds that while 85% of professionals observe that the on-screen portrayal of 2SLGBTQIA+ characters has improved in the past five years, there remains a significant gap in the amount, nature of representation and the narrowness of representation. The vast majority of industry professionals agree that portrayal of 2SLGBTQIA+ characters is frequently superficial (85%), stereotypical (84%), or focused solely on trauma (88%).